This application pertains to the art of marine craft stabilization, and more particularly to the art of automatic stabilization in accordance changing conditions encountered by a motorized boat while underway.
The invention is particularly applicable to automatic trim tab adjustment, and will be described with particular reference thereto, although it will be appreciated that the invention has broader applications, such as stabilization of vehicles in general through automatic parameter adjustment.
The art of automatically trimming a craft has been widely used and perfected in the aviation industry, predominately through the use of high cost gyro control systems. Attempts to apply the art to water craft have been made, but to date only large scale gyro application systems have been effective.
On small to moderate size vessels (typically 20 to 50 feet), manually operated trim tabs have been effective in setting the planing angle (pitch and roll). The problems encountered in the trimming process are significant due to constantly changing conditions.
Automatic trimming is desirable because of the constantly changing conditions which affect the pitch and roll of a vessel, i.e., changes in load, speed and sea conditions. A properly trimmed vessel increases efficiency, reduces stress on the structure and produces a smoother operation.